2.
One of Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s
suggestions for the name of the new game was "The Big One." That name
never caught on. “Pro Bowl,” did not work. “World Series of Football.”
That
died quickly. It was deemed too imitative of baseball’s Fall
Classic.

3.
Quarterback Bart Starr of the Packers on Vince Lombardi: It was a fabulous experience all of us had playing for
him, being coached by him. I could hardly wait for the next morning to
get into
the meeting to start that day off. He made everything so exciting, so
challenging. He was a brilliant teacher and because of it he was a
fabulous
coach.

4.
KC player Ed Lothamer said of Kansas City Coach Hank Stram: There were
times
when he had practices and a band playing. If an
entertainer
or celebrity was in Kansas City, often they would call Hank, and Hank
would
invite them to come over and watch practice. People like Muhammad
Ali,
Jim Nabors, Al Hirt, Edie Gorme and Steve Lawrence, all watched us
practice.
You never knew who was going to pop up.

5.
Prior
to that first Super Bowl Game on January 15, 1967 – the Packers and the
Chiefs
has never played against each other. Actually, no NFL team had ever
played
against an AFL team – even an exhibition game.

6.
The Saturday night before the game even
chubby
Jackie Gleason, one of the famed comedians of that era, got into the
act by
ending his CBS television urging his huge audience to make sure to tune
in the
next day to CBS and watch the world championship football game.

“It’s
gonna be murder!” Gleason bellowed

There
were
those who thought “The Great One” went a bit too far, that he was too
much of a
shill for his CBS network that carried the NFL broadcasts.

8.
Two
different footballs were used in the game. When the NFL Packers were on
offense, they used the NFL ball and when the AFL Chiefs were on
offense, the
AFL ball was used.

9.
Two
kick-offs incredibly took place to start the game’s second half because
NBC-TV
was in commercial for the first one and a “do over” was allowed.

10.
Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s wish was that the game would one day
surpass
baseball’s World Series. It would do much more than that.

With that first game history - The Super Bowl has evolved into
the
grandest, grossest, gaudiest annual one-day spectacle in the annals of
American
sports and culture. All of this incredibly spun off the game that was
played
that January day in 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a game that for a
time
lacked a name, a venue, an identity, a game that didn’t even sell out.

One
of
the most prolific and respected sports journalists and oral historians
in the
United States, author of the autobiographies of legends Nolan Ryan,Tony Dorsett, and Red Holzman, Dr Harvey Frommer is an expert on
the New
York Yankees and has arguably written more books, articles and reviews
on the
New York Yankees than anyone. In 2010, he was honored by the City of
New York
to serve as historical consultant for the re-imagined old Yankee
Stadium site,
Heritage Field.

.
A professor for more than two decades in the
MALS program at Dartmouth College, Frommer was dubbed “Dartmouth’s Mr.
Baseball” by their alumni magazine. He’s also the founder of www.HarveyFrommerSports.com.